Biography
Duncan
Hardy is a historian of Central Europe - broadly defined - in the
thirteenth to sixteenth centuries. He specializes in the history of the
Holy Roman Empire - the vast entity at the heart of medieval and early
modern Europe, which encompassed all or part of more than a dozen modern
European countries. More generally, he is interested in models of
state/polity formation and the debates around long-term political change
in medieval and early modern Europe; religious conflicts and the late
medieval and early modern Crusades; the history of diplomacy; the long
history of the Reformation(s); and the comparative study of political
cultures.
In his first book, Associative Political Culture in the Holy Roman Empire,
he argues that the political landscape of the imperial polity is best
understood as a nexus of intertwined networks, formalized by and within
leagues, alliances, and assemblies, challenging conventional
interpretations of the Empire and European models of state formation
more generally. He has also produced a book of edited and translated
sources illustrating German history circa 1350 to 1550, accompanied by
interpretive prefaces, titled Law, Society and Political Culture in Late Medieval and Reformation Germany.
Currently he is working on a project that rethinks "imperial reform" (Reichsreform),
the name given by previous generations of German historians to the
consolidation of the Holy Roman Empire in the long fifteenth century.
Moving past the inconclusive debate about whether the Reich in
this period was undergoing a kind of state formation, this project uses
new primary source evidence to show that the denizens of the Empire were
still rhetorically very concerned with a sense of mission to defend
"Christendom"; the "Holy" part of the Holy Roman Empire still mattered,
in other words. This perceived need to govern and defend a wider
Christian Europe, in the face of such crises as papal schisms, the
Hussite Wars, and the advance of the Ottoman Empire, provided the German
princes and cities with a justification for negotiating a better
framework for administering peace and justice in the Empire at political
assemblies at the turn of the late medieval and early modern periods.
Alongside this project, he is also writing an accessible overview of
late medieval Germany for the German History in Focus series with Bloomsbury Academic.
Before
joining the UCF Department of History, Duncan Hardy undertook
undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of Oxford. He has
held research fellowships at the Institute of Historical Research, the
Université libre de Bruxelles, the University of Cambridge, the
Universität Erfurt, and the Universität Bielefeld. He is a Fellow of the
Royal Historical Society.
Education
- Ph.D. in History [D.Phil.] from University of Oxford (2015)
Research Interests
Late Medieval Europe, Early Modern Europe, Reformation History, Political History, German History, Central Europe, Holy Roman Empire, Political Culture
Publications
Books
- Law, Society and Political Culture in Late Medieval and Reformation Germany, Manchester Medieval Sources (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2025).
- Associative Political Culture in the Holy Roman Empire: Upper Germany, 1346-1521 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018).
Articles/Essays
- “Keeping the Peace and Defending Christendom: The Shaping of the Holy Roman Empire as a Treaty-Based Multilateral Order (14th to 16th Centuries),” in Reframing Treaties in the Late Medieval and Early Modern West, ed. Isabella Lazzarini, Luciano Piffanelli, and Diego Pirillo (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2025), pp. 79-98.
-
"Vom Schiedstag zum Reichstag. Versuch einer Typologie des 'Tagungsspektrums' aus konzeptioneller
und funktioneller Sicht im Heiligen Römischen Reich ca. 1350–1550," in Kollektive Willensbildung in der Vormoderne: Hansetage im Vergleich, ed. Angela Huang and Christina Link (Wismar: Callidus Verlag, 2024), pp. 3-38.
-
“‘There Can Be No
Agreement to Take up Arms against the Turks Unless We First Restore the Empire’:
The Fall of Constantinople and the Rise of a New Political Dynamic in the Holy
Roman Empire, 1453-1467,” Austrian History Yearbook, 55 (2024): 524-537.
-
"The Imperial Cities and Imperial Reform in Late Medieval and Early Reformation Germany, 1410-1532," Reformation 28 (2) (2023): 115-133.
-
"Reform and Reformation," Routledge Resources Online - Medieval Studies (2022) <https://doi.org/10.4324/9780415791182-RMEO206-1>
-
“Were There ‘Territories’ in the German Lands of the Holy Roman Empire in the Fourteenth to Sixteenth Centuries?” in Constructing and Representing Territory in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe, ed. Mario Damen and Kim Overlaet (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2021), pp. 29-52.
-
“Holy Roman Empire (1300-1650),” Oxford
Bibliographies: Renaissance and Reformation, ed. Margaret King (2021) <https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780195399301-0472>
-
“Landfrieden,”
in Handbuch Frieden im Europa der Frühen Neuzeit / Handbook of Peace in
Early Modern Europe, ed. Irene Dingel, Michael Rohrschneider, Inken
Schmidt-Voges, Siegrid Westphal, and Joachim Whaley (Berlin: De Gruyter
Oldenbourg, 2021), pp. 151-169.
-
“Tage (Courts, Councils, and Diets):
Political and Judicial Nodal Points in the Holy Roman Empire, c. 1300-1550,” German History, 36 (3) (2018): 381-400.
- “The Emperorship of Sigismund of Luxemburg (1410-37): Charisma and Government in the Later Medieval Holy Roman Empire,” in Faces of Charisma: Image, Text, Object in Byzantium and the Medieval West, ed. Brigitte M. Bedos-Rezak and Martha D. Rust (Leiden: Brill, 2018), pp. 282-314.
- “Between Regional Alliances and Imperial Assemblies: Landfrieden as a Political Concept and Discursive Strategy in the Holy Roman Empire, c. 1350-1520,” in Landfrieden – epochenübergreifend. Neue Perspektiven der Landfriedensforschung auf Verfassung, Recht, Konflikt, ed. Hendrik Baumbach and Horst Carl,Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung. Beihefte, 54 (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2018), pp. 85-120.
- “Burgundian Clients in the South-Western Holy Roman Empire, 1410-1477: Between International Diplomacy and Regional Political Culture,” in Practices of Diplomacy in the Early Modern World, c. 1410-1800, ed. Tracey A. Sowerby and Jan Hennings, Routledge Research in Early Modern History series (Abingdon/New York: Routledge, 2017), pp. 25-43.
- “An Alsatian Nobleman’s Account of the Second Crusade against the Hussites in 1421: A New Edition, Translation, and Interpretation,” Crusades, 15 (2016): 199-221.
- “Reichsstädtische Bündnisse im Elsass als Beweise für eine “verbündende” politische Kultur am Oberrhein (ca. 1350-1500),” Zeitschrift für die Geschichte des Oberrheins, 162 (2014): 95-128.
- “The Hundred Years War and the ‘Creation’ of the Written English Vernacular: A Reassessment,” Marginalia, 17 (2013): 18-31.
- “The 1444-5 Expedition of the Dauphin Louis to the Upper Rhine in Geopolitical Perspective,” Journal of Medieval History, 38 (3) (2012): 358-387.
Awards
- 2025: Zentrum für interdisziplinäre Forschung, Universität Bielefeld - Visiting Fellow
- 2025: Forschungszentrum Gotha, Universität Erfurt - Hiob Ludolf Fellowship
- 2024: UCF Department of History - Pauley Travel Award
- 2022: UCF - Teaching Incentive Program
- 2022: UCF - Research Incentive Award
- 2021: UCF - Excellence in Research Award
- 2021: UCF - Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award
- 2020: Royal Historical Society - Fellowship
- 2019: Royal Historical Society - Gladstone Prize
- 2019: UCF Department of History - Pauley Travel Award
- 2017: Generallandesarchiv Karlsruhe - Johann Daniel Schöpflin Prize
- 2016: German History Society - German History Society Prize
- 2016-20: Trinity College, University of Cambridge - Title A Research Fellowship
- 2015-16: Wiener-Anspach Foundation, Université libre de Bruxelles - Postdoctoral Fellowship
- 2014-15: Institute of Historical Research, University of London - Scouloudi Fellowship
- 2014: German History Society - Annual Postgraduate Bursary
- 2014: University of Oxford, Faculty of History - Bryce Research Studentship
- 2012/2014: Jesus College, University of Oxford - T.E. Lawrence Award for Mediaeval History
- 2011-14: UK Arts and Humanities Research Council - Doctoral Award
Courses
| Course # | Course | Title | Mode | Days/Times | Syllabus |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19625 | EUH4131 | European Warfare | Mixed Mode (M) | Tu 3:00 PM - 4:15 PM | Unavailable |
| 20218 | EUH5208 | Colloq in Early Modern Hst | In Person (P) | Tu 6:00 PM - 8:50 PM | Unavailable |
| Course # | Course | Title | Mode | Days/Times | Syllabus |
|---|